In a tiny village in India’s northeast Jharkhand province, some 250 people gathered in an open area for an unusual treat: a video. Unusual, because it wasn’t some Bollywood glitz completely alien to their reality; they were watching a homemade movie about their own community, starring some of the people present in the audience. The subject? The Jindal Power Plant’s forced evictions of local residents. The company had been trying to acquire the land for years and, patience waning, they were beginning to simply grab it. Suddenly, agents from the company stormed the screening, causing a huge uproar. The police were called but refused to stop the screening.

[caption id="attachment_11993" align="alignleft" width="150"] Mary Nisha Hansda[/caption]

“For a change, it was the agents of the company who returned empty handed. Not only the distressed communities but we as correspondents have received a voice and renewed courage to bring positive change,” says Mary Nisha Hansda who is a Community Correspondent from Godda District and a founding member of the local HasaBhasa movement fighting imminent land acquisition by the Jindal group in the area.

Hansda works in the community to make people aware of their legal rights before and during evictions. She tells them about Free Prior and Informed Consent, about compensation processes, etc. That evening, Mary was screening VV’s informational video on the subject. “We are not against progress. But progress which doesn’t kill our identity; which doesn’t take away the land to which this tribal identity is tied. The local media in my region are in favour of the companies. It is only through networking with other organisations that we have ensured that journalists from Ranchi and Kolkata come and document our voice. Otherwise, the voice of the villagers never carries beyond the village,” says Hansda explaining her desire to be a part of the Community Correspondent network.

 

 

Mary is one of more than 50 women and men trained by Video Volunteers to report on Jharkhand’s realities. Community Correspondents record issues ranging from the effect of mining and forced evictions on tribal communities to the breakdown of administration at a village level to grossly inadequate medical, educational, infrastructure facilities that their communities live with.

The motley crew of Community Correspondents includes farmers, teachers, health workers, activists trying to save the last few remaining jungles of the area, housewives and social workers among others. Not people you would associate with reporting as many of us know it. Rather than being disinterested observers of events, these reporters are engaged in changing what they see around them. They fill the gaps created by major Hindi and English newspapers and TV channels that give only 0-7% space to rural news.

 

Reporting that brings justice for children and women

Getting more female voices in the news is a global challenge. In the U.S., a women’s group found that only 20% of op-eds written in America are authored by women. Globally, women only report about a third of the news stories in print media, according to Global Media Monitoring Project’s 2010 report. Therefore it was a conscious decision to recruit as many women as possible in the network to balance this skewed sex ratio and so in 2013 and 2014 we recruited only women CC’s in Jharkhand. Their reporting often sees things from a nuanced gendered lens—even issues like the non-implementation of social security schemes and forced evictions. The women feel that working as correspondents has given a boost to their self-confidence and a greater skill set to bring social change in the areas they work in.

[caption id="attachment_11995" align="alignleft" width="150"] Nirmala Ekka[/caption]

Correspondent Nirmala Ekka joined VV with the single-minded goal of documenting how rapid urbanisation has thrown up a whole new set of challenges for women, making them vulnerable to trafficking and sexual violence. She explains the transformation she sees in her own self, “I understand the local issues much better than I previously did. I now have a working knowledge of English. I attribute all of this to the exposure Video Volunteers has given me, whether it is mentoring newer Correspondents or going and training other people to use video as an advocacy tool, like I did recently in West Bengal. I feel empowered enough to go to the police station and Block Office to make further enquiries about the issues we face.”

 In the past three years she has been covering stories in the urban slums of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, and highlighting problems like the lack of child care facilities, sewage, and sexual assaults on children.  In one particularly harrowing story Nirmala reported regarding the rape of a minor, she was successful in making sure that the family of the child got proper legal aid. Nirmala snorts with cynical laughter when she describes how the State had appointed four lawyers for the accused who has a previous record, and one single lawyer for the child’s family. She details how the court spent months postponing this case, how the sheer lack of knowledge & awareness of legal processes left the child’s family bewildered. Nirmala was one of the few who  convinced the hesitant family to report the case and pursue a legal battle that was becoming an uphill task.

 

 

“Such is the state of affairs in Jharkhand, that if crimes are committed you are discouraged from initiating action because it will simply take up far too much time...When I shared my fears with friends & colleagues at Video Volunteers, everybody insisted on the same thing— to follow this case through.” As Nirmala’s video reached mainstream news, VV asked the Association for Advocacy & Legal Initiatives to take up the case and the proceedings continue to this date.

 

Reporting on Mining

While recruiting potential Community Correspondents we were looking for people already working on social issues in their communities. For many, their work as correspondents consolidates the other work they do as part of organisations and social movements.

With one reporter serving the needs of several communities over a long period, the resulting videos give an in-depth understanding of the socio-political dynamics playing out in the area. While some correspondents pick up one issue and collect multiple evidences of it from across their whole district, others create a detailed picture of an area by documenting many different issues in just a handful of villages.

[caption id="attachment_11996" align="alignleft" width="150"] Basanti Soren[/caption]

Basanti Soren lives a kilometre away from the East Parej Coal Mines, which have left an indelible mark on the environment and traditional livelihoods of the forest dependent community there. Basanti has been a part of the Jungle BachaoAndolanfor a few years, a movement that seeks to conserve the remaining forests of the area otherwise decimated by mining. As a video activist, Basanti has been documenting the lack of rehabilitation and compensation to those affected by the mines.

For the past decades extractive industries have been set up across Jharkhand on the premise of economic development. Who exactly the beneficiaries of this development are remains to be answered. The literacy rate remains 67.63% compared to the national rate of 74.04%; the infant mortality rate is 41 (per 1000) compared to the national 50; Only 36% villages have access to all weather roads, compared to 57% at a national level.

“My people are the ones who pay the price for this 'development'. In the past many people have filed complaints and made appeals to solve issues like dipping water tables, pollution, displacement and so on. There has hardly ever been a response to these... A large part of the problem is that we just don't know our rights. The government wont tell us, the companies wont tell us. Of course not! They are scared that if we know, we'll ask them questions. With my videos I ask those questions,” Basanti says.